| Child
Soldiers |
COMBINED NATIONAL
STATISTICS
* More than 10,000 children
in the country have been serving as child soldiers with the rebels and civil
militia. (Rädda
Barnen, Childwar database, citing Olara Otunnu, September 1999)
*
The percentage of child soldiers is perhaps over 50%. (Rädda
Barnen, Childwar database)
* Some 5,000
child combatants serve among government and opposition forces, and
a further 5,000 are estimated to have been recruited for labour
among armed groups. (CSUCS,
Global Report on Child Soldiers - 2001 citing AI, "Sierra Leone
Childhood - a casualty in conflict", 31/08/00)
*
It has been estimated than one third of all underage soldiers are
girls. (CSUCS,
Africa Report, April 1999, citing M. Öttli, "Und dann töten sie
mich: mit sieben Jahren ans Gewehr - die Kindersoldaten in Sierra
Leone", Die Zeit, 14 January 1999)
* UNAMSIL observers
reported that up to 25% of soldiers fighting in the CDF, AFRC/ex-SLA
and Sierra Leone Army appeared to be under 18. (CSUCS,
Update 2, 9 June 2000)
*
Over 1,900 children have been among those demobilised since November last
year. (CSUCS, Update 2, 9 June 2000, citing
UNAMSIL)
GOVERNMENT
FORCE STATISTICS
*
Patrick Zangalaywah, a CDF field commander estimated that their forces
in the eastern Kailahun district alone numbered 3,000 child soldiers. (CSUCS,
Africa Report, April 1999, citing L. Fofana, "Militia admits recruiting
child soldiers", IPS, Freetown, 29 June 1998)
OPPOSITION
GROUP STATISTICS
*
In May 2000 a Revolutionary United Front (RUF) spokesman SWB Rogers
was quoted as saying: "The RUF doesn't believe in using children
as soldiers. When they are 5 or 6, they are far too young to fight.
We only use the older boys, from 10 or 11 upwards." (CSUCS,
Global Report on Child Soldiers - 2001 citing Africa Confidential,
26 May 2000)
*
UNICEF estimates suggest child soldiers make up more than 30% of
some of the fighting factions in Sierra Leone. (Adam
Killick, "Innocence lost: New lightweight weapons make it easy for
warring factions to bolster ranks with youths", National Post, 16
September 2000)
* More than 3,000 children
and 570 adults were reported as missing following the January offensive.
Hundreds more were abducted as they moved through the villages around Masiaka.
The abductees were often subjected to hard labour, forcibly recruited into
the military, and compelled to become sexual partners to male combatants.
(Human
Rights Watch, Country Reports, 2000)
* UNICEF says there are
approximately 5,000 children associated with Sierra Leone's various armed
groups, including the Kamajors, the Militia of Hunters loyal to President
Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, and the RUF. (Rädda
Barnen, Childwar database, citing IRIN, 14 July 1999)
* There are 2,000 children
among the Kamajors. (Rädda
Barnen, Childwar database, citing AFP, 14 October 1998)
* As many as 80% of the
rebel soldiers were between the ages of 7 and 14 in the beginning of 1997.
(Rädda
Barnen, Childwar database, citing "The Children's War", Towards Peace in
Sierra Leone, Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, March-April
1997)
* A reporter for the
Herald Guardian, who was captured by the ARFC/RUF in Koidu town, testified
to the role of child soldiers. He said there were around 1,500-2,000 children
within this group. (CSUCS,
Africa Report, April 1999, citing Human Rights Watch)
* Majority of the
980 ex-child combatants who were beneficiaries of the Children Associated
with the War (CAW) programme have rearmed and joined the RUF-AFRC following
their summary dismissal from the programme in November 1997. (CSUCS,
Africa Report, April 1999, citing L. N. Mboka, "Children take up arms",
The Democrat, 24 February 1999)
*
It is estimated by one source that 3,000 children are with the RUF. (CSUCS,
Africa Report, April 1999, citing A. Roberts, "Teenage warriors fight to
last boy", The Independent, 24 November 1998)
NOTES
ON GOVERNMENT FORCES
*
As recently as 22 March, the government, the SLA, the CDF and the
AFRC had signed a declaration to end the use of children as combatants.
Interim care centres for demobilised children have been kept functioning
in recent weeks. (CSUCS, Update 2, 9 June 2000)
*
The Lomè peace agreement of July 1999 included important
provisions on the demobilisation of child soldiers, however the
resumption of fighting in May 2000 significantly slowed progress.
To date slightly more than 1,800 children are reported to have entered
disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programmes. (CSUCS,
Global Report on Child Soldiers - 2001)
*
The low rate of child demobilisation after May 2000 suggests that
many underage recruits may remain among these government forces.
(CSUCS,
Global Report on Child Soldiers - 2001)
*
A 1997 report by the Women's Commission for Refugees Women and Children,
an international NGO, documented recruitment of Sierra Leonean children
from refugee camps in Guinea to join the Kamajors, the Sierra Leonean government
militia organisation. (Human Rights Watch,
Human Rights Abuses Against Sierra Leonean Refugee Children in Guinea,
submission to the UN CRC, January 1999)
* Despite promises of
the Sierra Leone government to demobilise all combatants under the age of
18, recent reports indicate that the Civilian Defense Forces (CDFs) continue
to recruit children on a large scale. (Human
Rights Watch, New Regime, but Continued Human Rights Violations: Despite
Promises, the Use and Abuse of Child Soldiers Continues in Sierra Leone)
* The Civil Defence Forces
(CDF) are made up of a number of tribes, namely the Kamajors in the south
and east of the country, and Kapras, Donsos and Tamaboros in the North.
These are societies of traditional hunters. In the case of the Kamajors,
within their overall structure, male children go through an initiation process.
This initiation is now used to determine that a child is entering adulthood
and can be part of the fighting Kamajors. These child fighters tend to be
older than 8 years of age. (CSUCS,
Africa Report, April 1999, citing UNICEF)
* The use of children
as soldiers has become a part of deliberate military strategy as they are
more trustworthy than the adults. (CSUCS,
Africa Report, April 1999, citing L. Fofana, "Militia admits recruiting
child soldiers", IPS, Freetown, 29 June 1998)
*
In his second report on the UN Observer Mission in Sierra Leone, the UN
Secretary-General pointed out that "there is also continued concern about
the ongoing armed deployment of underage boys and, in some locations, their
continued initiation into the Civil Defence Forces. (CSUCS,
Africa Report, April 1999, citing UN Doc. S/1998/960, 16 October 1998)
NOTES ON OPPOSITION GROUPS
* In Sierra Leone,
both the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and pro-government forces
continued to forcibly recruit children, including demobilised child
soldiers, into their ranks. (HRW,
World Report 2001)
*
In May 2000 a UN assessment mission observed children between 7
and 14 years old comprising 25 to 30% of the SLA/CDF in the town
of Masiaka. Militia members claimed the children had volunteered
as fighting spread through the villages. (CSUCS,
Global Report on Child Soldiers - 2001 citing AI, "Sierra Leone
Childhood - a casualty in conflict", 31/08/00)
* The RUF is
well known for its abduction and forcible recruitment of children,
both boys and girls, for use as soldiers, sexual slaves and forced
labour. (CSUCS,
Global Report on Child Soldiers - 2001)
*
Armed groups typically rely on forced recruitment through abduction
and drug use, and are responsible for particularly cruel and degrading
treatment of children in their camps, often including the sexual
slavery of girls. (CSUCS,
Global Report on Child Soldiers - 2001)
* Some 40 demobilised
child soldiers from a demobilisation camp in Makeni were pressured
by the RUF to rejoin through the use of threats, false promises,
and false rumours. (HRW,
World Report 2001)
* The RUF forced
children to carry military equipment and to loot goods and engage
in fighting. (HRW,
World Report 2001)
* The civil
defence militias also remobilized scores of child soldiers. (HRW,
World Report 2001)
*
Most of the rebels are children not older than 14 who are under the effect
of drugs and alcohol. (Rädda
Barnen, Childwar database, citing Le Figaro, 25 January 1999)
* RUF child soldiers
are as young as 8 years of age. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998)
* AFRC forcibly pressed
teenage boys into military service. They often took boys on the streets
of Freetown to expand its forces. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998)
* Members of the
Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and the Revolutionary United
Front(RUF), the rebel alliance in Sierra
Leone, have continued to use child soldiers. In the period of February
through June 1998 alone, the AFRC/RUF abducted an unknown number of
civilians, probably in the thousands, including a substantial percentage
of children for use as combatants, forced labourers, or sexual slaves.
(Human Rights Watch, New Regime, but
Continued Human Rights Violations)
* After an appeal of
UNICEF for the release by the RUF of all child soldiers that they still
have in their ranks, just after the signing of the Peace Agreement of 7
July 1999, Lt. Col. Olukolade, spokesman of the ECOMOG forces, announced
on 20 July 1999 that the RUF had released 187 hostages the week before,
among them 111 children between the ages of 11 and 17. (CSUCS,
Africa Report, April 1999, citing "Rights Sierra Leone: Rebels release 111
children", IPS, 20 July 1999)
* On 2 February 1999,
ECOMOG soldiers handed over to UNICEF seven child soldiers they had captured
during fighting. These children were aged between 6 and 10 years and were
abducted by rebel forces in December 1998. By the middle of February, there
were all together 34 child soldiers and street children who were handed
to UNICEF by ECOMOG soldiers. They had been involved in the RUF attack of
Freetown. (CSUCS,
Africa Report, April 1999, citing "Sierra Leone: une cinquantaine de civils
se noient en fuyant", AFP, 3 February 1999)
* A journalist from the
French newspaper, Le Figaro, claimed that most of the rebels are children
not older than 14, who are under the effect of drugs and alcohol. (CSUCS,
Africa Report, April 1999, citing Saint-P. Paul, "Freetown: bienvenue en
enfer", Le Figaro, 25 January 1999)
*
People who were captured by the AFRC/RUF forces reported that they had
seen these forces abducting and holding young men and boys to use as child
soldiers, and that child soldiers have been among their AFRC/RUF attackers.
(CSUCS,
Africa Report, April 1999, citing A. Roberts, "Teenage warriors fight to
last boy", The Independent, 24 November 1998)
NOTES
FROM PREVIOUS ARMED CONFLICTS
* In the 1991-96 war
between government forces and RUF rebels, an estimated 4,500 children were
forced to fight on both sides. (Rädda
Barnen, Childwar database, citing UNICEF Newsline, 19 June 1997)
* In 1995, the Revolutionary
United Front has raided villages to capture children into its rank. (UNICEF,
State of the World's Children, 1996)
* More than 60% of
a group of 1,000 fighters" screened by the Disarmament, Demobilisation
and Resettlement Committee before the military coup of 25 May 1997 were
children. (CSUCS,
Africa Report, April 1999, citing L. Fofana, "Sierra Leone children: young,
armed and dangerous", IPS, 1 July 1997)
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